The Omen of the Birds of Death
by mellifluous aria
Summary: Hermione and Draco are at a remote coastal location, hoping to indulge in a nice vacation. However, fun doesn't come very easily to the two members of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and they must figure out how to get rid of a disturbing, unknown menace before they can relax. Sort of sequel to Partners. Written for round 6 of QLFC, season 3.


**A/N:** This is my fic for Round 6 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition! I had to write something in the adventure genre, and my prompts were: (dialogue) "So... what exactly is that?", (creature) mermaid, and (word) chasing. I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

I should have known better than to expect that any vacation of mine, no matter how isolated the chosen destination was, would _actually_ involve relaxation. Honestly, after everything that happened to me, Harry, and Ron at Hogwarts, I should be used to chasing after bad guys and scary monsters at the flick of a wand.

In spite of all this, I was still surprised, and not a little disgruntled, by the unpleasant sight in front of me.

"So... what exactly is that?" asked Draco, my boyfriend of four months and monster-hunting partner of over five years. Of course, we don't really "hunt" monsters – our job description involves more capturing than killing, but our cases generally end up with Draco and me pursuing, and then subduing, some exotic, highly dangerous magical creature for the Beast Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

The creatures in question on this slightly chilly day were a flock of particularly gruesome-looking avian monsters, raucously cawing as they sat perched on the edge of a rickety wooden dock that had seen more than its fair share of storms and beating rain. The birds had long, extremely sharp beaks, tar-coloured feathers covering grotesquely shaped skeletons, and eerily glowing red eyes. The flock also exuded a faint green glow as the birds ruffled their wings and paced along the weather-beaten planks, squawking at the sea.

"I've never seen anything like them before," I mumbled, my eyebrows furrowed as I followed the birds' movements, a faint breeze ruffling my hair.

Draco looked at me in alarm. "You don't know what they are?"

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, we need to do some research." With one last glance at the disturbing birds, I pulled Draco back towards our rented cottage, resigned to the fact that this vacation was not going to be as fun as I had imagined.

* * *

"You're joking." Draco, who was sitting next to me on the lone couch in our little beach house, glanced at the stack of papers in my lap with a dubious look.

I shook my head adamantly. "My files are _always_ correct." Well, almost always.

He raised a sceptical eyebrow. "The Birds of Death? Isn't that a bit melodramatic?"

I shrugged. "Maybe, but regardless of that, the fact that they're here is _not_ good," I said as I skimmed through the notes that I had requested to be delivered from my office. "It says that the Birds of Death usually appear when someone is about to die."

"Well," Draco drawled, leaning back on the couch. "I guess the name fits, then."

My lips twisted into a wry smile as I glanced over at him, and then leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips.

"I'm sorry this isn't as fun as I said it would be," he stated when we broke apart, his grey eyes soft as the sky at dawn.

I shrugged. "It could be worse," I replied, reaching for his hand. "The company's not so bad, is it?"

He smirked as our fingers intertwined. "Why, Hermione, I do believe that you just complimented me."

I grinned. "Don't get too used to it," I murmured, suddenly not particularly upset about being alone with him for an entire week.

* * *

Later that evening, after spending the afternoon _not_ working on the case of the demented birds, we decided to take a stroll along the beach and do some more investigating while attempting to act like we were still on vacation. The air was cool and crisp, filled with a certain salty scent peculiar to the sea, and the moon glinted sliver, casting glittering light on the ever-moving waves. The night was silent, save for the rush of the waves as the tide moved the foamy water back and forth, and millions of twinkling stars dotted the inky sky. As peaceful as it was, walking with Draco along the beautiful shore, my thoughts couldn't help but return to the sight of those terrible birds and what they apparently represented.

We were nearing the dock that we had seen earlier when a mournful, wailing voice, accompanied by frenzied cawing, split through the quiet night. Draco and I exchanged a frightened glance, then began to sprint along the beach, wands outstretched. Goosebumps began to spread along my arms as the keening cry continued, and I sincerely hoped that the omen of the birds was not true. Finally, we were in sight of the origin of the noise, and, after much squinting, I realized that it was a mermaid that was making those horrible sounds.

As we approached the mermaid and the birds squawking at her, I shouted, " _Confringo!"_ The Birds of Death that had not combusted took off into the night, cawing madly, as Draco and I carefully walked to the end of the dock.

"Hello?" I shouted in Mermish, looking around for the mermaid. Thank Godric we had to learn the various languages spoken by beings as part of our training courses.

Draco, his pale hair shining in the moonlight, elbowed me and pointed towards a figure making its way towards us through the ocean. The mermaid stopped at the end of the dock and poked her head above the water.

"Thank you for driving those birds off," she said, looking at us with earnest sapphire eyes.

"You're welcome," I replied, sitting down on the dock. Draco followed suit, and then wrapped his arm around me.

"So," I began, leaning my head against Draco's shoulder. "Do you know why those birds were bothering you?"

At this question, her blue eyes began to fill with tears, and her lips began to tremble. Alarmed, I quickly asked, "Are you all right?"

The mermaid shook her head forlornly, tears slipping down her pale face. "I didn't want to believe it, but since the Birds of Death came, I guess I can't pretend any longer… oh, Bubbles!" She began to cry now, heaving sobs wracking her thin frame, and Draco and I exchanged panicked looks. Evil birds were, at least, what we were used to dealing with, but distressed mermaids were another matter.

"I'm sorry about all of this, but… who is Bubbles?" asked Draco, perplexed.

"My Grindylow!" she burst out, wiping at her cheeks.

 _Oh._ I blinked, suddenly fighting the urge to laugh hysterically at the thought of a flock of demented birds foretelling the death of a Grindylow. Then I cleared my throat and replied, with as much compassion as I could muster, "Is Bubbles sick?"

The mermaid, whose name we still did not know, nodded, and then asked beseechingly, "Could you please help him? Oh, I don't know what I'd do if my poor darling left me!"

I glanced over at Draco, who merely shrugged a shoulder, a small smile on his lips. I turned back to the mermaid. "Of course we'll help," I said firmly, trying to forget the fact that Grindylow occasionally ate humans. "Now, what exactly is wrong with him?"

The mermaid sniffled, but managed a watery smile. "He's been looking all out of sorts lately. He doesn't eat anything and just mopes all day! He doesn't even want to leave our cave."

"Is there anything else you've noticed? Is he a different colour than normal?"

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Well, he _does_ look a lot, oh how do I say this nicely? Rounder? Mostly just around the stomach. Would you like to come down and see him?"

"No thanks," Draco cut in, giving me a look that said that he knew exactly what Grindylows were capable of doing. "How about Hermione and I go do some research? We'll meet you here tomorrow at noon, and hopefully we'll have figured out what's wrong with… Bubbles by then."

The mermaid smiled and nodded. "Thank you both so much! When you get here, just shout my name, 'Melody', and I'll pop right up." She then gave us a small wave and disappeared back under the dark water.

"Well," I said to Draco, getting up to my feet. "Shall we go research the case of the round Grindylow?"

He smirked, and then looped his arm around my waist, and we made our way back to our cottage.

* * *

The next morning, Draco and I were once again seated on the grey-blue couch in the living room, surrounded by folders and papers. "There's nothing here about Grindylow that suddenly gained weight," I groaned, frowning at my files.

"Maybe he just ate too many fish," Draco suggested, looking rather bored with the entire situation.

I glared at him. "Be serious. We have to fix this, or those blasted birds will come back and ruin the rest of our vacation!"

He snorted. "So Gryffindor of you, love, always thinking of other people," he retorted teasingly.

"Grindylow are terrible! They eat wizards! Do you honestly expect me to care about their wellbeing?" I snapped, annoyed by the lack of leads we had on the case.

Draco sighed. "Don't worry so much about this," he said, his grey eyes peering into my brown ones. "You'll figure it out – after all, you're Hermione Granger, Muggleborn extraordinaire."

"Oh, you are absolutely incorrigible," I huffed, picking up my files. "You're right though. I _will_ figure this out, for the sake of our vacation."

Around twenty minutes later, I stumbled upon something interesting. "Draco, did you know that Grindylow die after giving birth?"

He raised an eyebrow. "But Bubbles is a male Grindylow," he replied, slowly.

"What if he's not?" I skimmed through the rest of the file. "Male and female Grindylow look very similar, and Melody doesn't seem to be the brightest of mermaids, so it's quite possible that she got Bubbles' gender wrong. And look, this says that Grindylow decrease movement when they're pregnant because it's very easy to hurt the baby when swimming around."

I looked up at Draco, who looked as if he was very, very amused by everything I just said, and asked, "So, do you think that Bubbles is pregnant?"

He shrugged, idly tapping his fingers on the couch's arm. "We don't have anything else to report, and I trust your research skills, so I suppose that Bubbles _could_ actually be female."

I nodded. "Let's go talk to Melody."

* * *

Melody predictably did not take the news very well.

"WHAT?!" she screeched, looking at us aghast. "Bubbles is _pregnant?!_ "

I nodded cautiously, my hand surreptitiously placed near my wand, which was concealed in my jacket.

"And he's going to _die?!_ " Melody's face became ashen at the thought.

"Technically, he's a she," Draco corrected, rather unhelpfully.

I sighed and added, "But you'll get a new Grindylow when Bubbles gives birth." I gave the distraught mermaid a hopeful smile.

She looked at me, surprised. "You're right!" she exclaimed, suddenly smiling brightly. "I'll name the baby Bubbles, Jr.!"

I blinked. "All right, then," I replied, a bit unnerved by the drastic change in her mood.

"Oh, thank you so much! I'm so happy now!" Melody did a small twirl in the water, and then said, "I need to go make sure that Bubbles is all right! Thanks again!" And with that, she waved and sped back under the water.

"Well, that was interesting," said Draco, reaching for my hand.

I shook my head in disbelief. "I still can't believe that those birds came all the way here just because of a Grindylow."

Draco grinned, and my heart did a backflip at the sight of his grey eyes and lopsided smile. As we walked back to our little house, Draco mused, "You know, Hermione, I think you permanently scared those ghastly birds away."

I smiled and tilted my face towards his. "Good. The less disturbance, the better we'll be able to concentrate on… other things," I replied impishly.


End file.
